Bloggus interruptus

Wednesday January 12, 2011 Day 196

Roger and I returned to the doctor for my follow-up. He said there was no cartilage damage which needed repair, but the MRI showed substantial arthritis in the knee. He suggested that I might benefit from a particular shot at some point, depending up upon what happens in the future. For now he suggested that I do the exercises, take the glucosamine and restrict my exercise to walking, which he said is fine. He did suggest relatively flat areas, so no more Peyrou. Of course, there are still the three flights up to our apartment.

In the meantime, Brennan went for his check-up and passed with flying colors.

This evening Roger and I went to Mary Ellen’s for family game night. After much discussion, I let Aaron load OpenOffice on my computer while we were there. I did not try to open anything at the time. Later, when I tried to open my blog in OpenOffice, it did not open correctly, giving me just a blank page. I carefully closed the application, telling it not to save any changes made, but later, when I tried to open my blog in Works, it would not open! AAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHH! As a result, I do not have a few days of posts. I have been able to recreate a few incidents in some of the days, but that is all.

Game night at the Stantons - Waiting to start playing card and domino games 

Too long to Atlanta

Tuesday January 11, 2011 Day 195

Alicia and Peter finally arrived home in the afternoon. Three days on the road! Ugh! Well, okay, not all of them “on the road, but a trip that should take 12-13 hours took more than 60 hours. Double Ugh!

We took no photos of the snow. Once you have a grandchild, snow becomes ordinary and it is the grandchild who is extraordinary and therefore photographable!

The new mother, her baby, her boppy and her Bruno

MRI

Monday January 10, 2011 Day 194

I had an MRI on my knee this morning. This was my first experience with an MRI and it was everything I had heard it would be. Fascinating process - there was an amazing amount of noise - sometimes banging, sometimes jackhammer-sounding noises, The technician gave me noise-cancelling headphones and my choice of any local radio station or several genres of music. I chose classical, but what she put in was more new-age guitar. Very nice, but not what I think of as classical.

In the waiting room before the procedure - more ubiquitous TV, analysis and over-analysis of the shootings on Saturday. Welcome to the U.S.A., where we insist that, when you are in public, you WILL listen/watch news, over and over and over and over and over and over again.

Alicia and Peter were on the road again, this time making it to Heflin, Georgia, before road conditions forced them into a hotel for yet another night on the road. Usually the trip from Dallas to Atlanta would take about 12 hours.

Snow in Dallas . . . and beyond

Sunday January 9, 2011 Day 193

A wintry mix started in the morning, turning to snow around noon - only an inch or two, but still quite cold. We were debating what to have for lunch, and Eric announced that he had a couple of free pizza coupons from Papa John’s, so he went online to order two pizzas. When he got to the prompt for “special driver instructions” he put “bundle up.” He had to order the two pizzas separately, and on the second one he said “drive carefully.”

Christa, Paul and Aaron here, sans children. Played games, fixed pasta with spaghetti sauce. Roger started bread in the bread machine. It was delicious, as always.

Alicia called to say that they had gotten to Shreveport at about 3:00 a.m. and spent the rest of the night (morning!) in a hotel there. After about six hours of sleep, they got up and headed along I-20 toward Atlanta, but the roads were so bad that they only made it to Eutaw, Alabama before being forced by icy weather conditions to stay there for the night.

Saints are out of the playoffs - Sigh

Saturday January 8, 2011 Day 192

I slept through the night, and woke to the sound of Bruno striking his paw against the door. “Wake up and take me for a walk!” he said, so Roger complied. I got up and fixed pancakes for everyone, including Alicia, Peter and Eric, who arrived around 10:00. Christa, Sarah, Acuzena, and James were not far behind. We played games and sat around and talked and watched after the babies. Having two babies to compete with, Sarah was particularly desperate for attention.

We watched the Saints game, and the Saints lost. Sigh. Superbowl champs one year, the next year they can’t even get past the first round of the playoffs. SIGH.

More television news, more killings, more shootings, more death and disaster. Welcome to the U.S.A.!

We had plans to go see Roger’s aunt Ann, who lives in Ft. Worth, but she called in tears, apologizing and saying that she was not up to the visit. She said her face was badly swollen and she just felt too bad to have visitors. She has breast cancer and has struggled through the treatments. So we held Brennan and played games the rest of the afternoon.

Bruno, looking for his place in the pack.

There is snow forecast for tomorrow. After dinner, Alicia and Peter and Eric left to go down to spend the night at Mary Ellen’s house again. Once there, Peter and Alicia checked the weather reports and decided to leave for Atlanta and spend the night along the road somewhere.

Doctor's appointment

Friday January 7, 2011 Day 191

I got up again around 4:00 a.m., as I think my body is still trying to adjust to the time change. Brennan was up for a feeding, so I got to hold him again after his mother finished nursing him. As with yesterday morning, I returned to bed after Brennan fell asleep, and got up at 9:00 again.

Aren't they beautiful!!!!

I had scheduled a doctor’s appointment for this morning at 10:00 for an Aggie to take a look at my left knee, which has been bothering me since the cruise. I went to a sports medicine clinic, and I was very impressed with their process and their efficiency. I filled out all the forms online and they were ready for me when I arrived this morning - no more questions about history, etc. My first stop was the x-ray room where the technician took three shots of both knees and one shot of my left knee alone. Then one of the doctor’s assistants (another Aggie) came in to chat a bit about my problems, and we talked some about France as well. Then the big doc came in and gave me the bad news, which is that I have significant arthritis in both knees. He gave me some exercises to do and told me to take 1500 mg of glucosamine daily and perhaps I will not need knee replacement surgery in 20 years.(!) Because I will be returning to France in two weeks, we scheduled an MRI for Monday, with followup visit for Wednesday. If I were not headed back to France, we probably would wait to see how things are going, but I wanted to know whether there was any injury in my knee which could be repaired by surgery.

We arrived back at the house just as Alicia and Eric were headed out to put Eric’s car into the shop for a clutch job. I rode along with them for the very short trip to the shop. We three then returned in Alicia’s car.

While we were at the doctor’s office, Brennan and his parents were at his pediatrician’s office for a two-week checkup. He passed with flying colors, having almost regained his birth weight.

That afternoon we visited Kristi and Mike to see their new 4-day-old daughter, Peyton. There is a marked difference in the sizes of the babies, even though they were born only five days apart: Brennan is a little more than eight pounds, Peyton just at six pounds. She seems so tiny after having held Brennan.

Alicia, Shelli, Brennan and I went next to Costco after to try out Shelli’s new membership card. She was rather overwhelmed by the choices available, so we all worked together to help decide what to buy to feed the household through the next several days.

We dropped Ronnie at Joe’s, then Shelli and I went home - we were exhausted. We both took naps. Alicia and Peter bought fixings and made a delicious tortellini soup using some of the deer sausage Eric brought.

In the evening, Ronnie, Shelli, Alicia, Peter and Eric played games. Roger and I sat out, still trying to recover from the fatigue of our trip and still enjoying Brennan. Then Alicia, Peter and Eric left to drive down to Mary Ellen’s house for the night. She graciously agreed to host some of my family while we are all in Dallas.

Family time

Thursday January 6, 2011 Day 190

I got up about 4:00 and couldn’t sleep. I got up and found that Shelli was nursing Brennan, so I invited myself in to talk with her while she nursed him. Then she changed him, swaddled him, handed him off to me and went back to bed. Heaven! When I got too tired, I put him back in the cradle, then returned to bed, arising again around 9:00 in order to hold Brennan some more. Alicia and Peter arrived at noon, and we had time with family. We had a quick take-out from deli for lunch, the a photographer friend of Shelli’s came to take pictures of Brennan and his family. Unfortunately, no one consulted Brennan on this timing, and he declared that he was not going to cooperate. It’s funny - he was good up until the time the photographer came, and he was good afterward, but during that hour, he was quite cranky!

Peter looking a little uncomfortable
with his new nephew

Alicia looks thrilled - Brennan less so.

It doesn't do to let a baby interfere with card games!

Later we shared Christmas gifts with one another. It was good to see and talk with Eric. He brought some deer meet which a friend had given him - a combination of sausage, ground meat, steaks and salami - probably 15-20 pounds in total. How nice! It was actually good to see and talk with all our kids, but Eric is the one I correspond with least, so it was particularly good to visit with him. The other four I take for granted!

Here’s a shout-out to Diane Sympson, my latest follower. Welcome! Since I only have twelve followers, it is a big deal when I get a new one.

Excitement at the airport

Wednesday January 5, 2011 Day 189

I looked out the window at 5:45 this morning and saw our taxi already waiting in the street below. We had requested the taxi for 6:00, and he was early. Do they run the meter if they are early but the passenger is on time? Don’t know - we seldom travel by taxi. We zipped the last suitcase, turned out the lights, set the heater to “vacation” mode and headed down the stairs. We arrived at the airport with prompt dispatch and checked in without incident, except that when I went through security, I set off the alarm. I was patted down and the woman found my pedometer. When she asked me to reveal it, I knocked it off my waistband and she immediately stepped back. I collected it and showed her what was. She finished the patdown, looked at the pedometer, then whispered to me that next time the pedometer should go through the scanner, but that I did not need to go back and send it through again. Since it was off, I crammed it into my purse and joined Roger who, uncharistically, had no problem with security. Usually if one of us is going to have security issues, it is Roger. He discovered later that he had left his watch on going through security and it hadn’t triggered the alarm. Who would have thought? We had time to kill, and roger reminded me that my boarding pass still did not include Cincinnati, so I went back downstairs and stood in line again. There was very little problem getting my pass printed, then I headed upstairs for a second trip through security. I had nothing with me but my passport and boarding pass, but I still set off the scanner. I was approached by the same woman who had patted me down before, and I indicated that it wasn’t my pedometer because I didn’t have it on. She said no problem, this was routine, patted me down without finding anything, and waved me on through.

We arrived at l’Aeroport Charles de Gaulle on time, with almost two hours to catch our plane to Cincinnati, although boarding was scheduled to start in one hour, at 9:30. We deplaned and had to spend a few minutes locating our departure gate. In fact, we had to stop at an information to desk because we were unable to locate our flight on any screen. The guy told us E47 and pointed the way. L’Aeroport Charles de Gaulle has a system whereby the gates are set in clusters, and if passengers leave one set of gates (we came into Section D) and go to another section (Section E for us) they must exit the secure area, locate the proper section, then reenter through a security check. So we left the secure area and walked along, and walked and walked and walked, looking for Section E! Suddenly we came to a halt, because everyone else did too. A portion of the airport was closed, with the closure manned by beret-sporting young armed military personnel. There was no foot traffic moving, and we were puzzled as to why. Someone in the crowd told us that there was some suspicious luggage or a package which had been located. We stood anxiously as the minutes passed, all of us in the same boat (but not the same plane!). As we watched the soldier pacing, at one point I thought “how nifty he must feel to be so young, and yet so powerful as to be able to stop all traffic through the airport!” Not only was passage through both floors of the airport forbidden, but the motor traffic outside the airport past our terminal was stopped as well. It appeared that the sphere of activity was located on the lower floor, and we were on the upper floor. After a ten- to fifteen-minute wait, someone blew a whistle, Roger saw a flash of light (my view was blocked by people standing in front of me - I need those extra five inches he mentioned last summer), then there was a loud explosive BANG! That silenced the crown for a few seconds as we contemplated what had likely happened - Roger suggested that an explosive charge had been placed near the package or suitcase and it was then detonated, destroying the item and its contents. I had a vision of fragments of clothing and personal items wafting through the air. After several more moments, the soldiers lifted the block and everyone rushed past toward his/her flight. We got to the passport check stations, but the personnel manning these stations were not there, apparently having gone for a smoke or coffee break since there was no action. So voyagers bottlenecked again at that point, and we spent ten minutes or more trying to get through there. We were not particularly worried, although the “last call” time had passed by this time. We knew that there were likely to be a large number of other passengers in a similar position, and the plane would not take off before all of us were aboard, given the circumstances.

We finally passed all the security and passport checks, this time without incident. We moved toward our gate, stopping for a bottle of water; after all, we still had five minutes before our plane was scheduled to depart! When we arrived at the gate, our passports and boarding passes were checked twice more, then we were waived toward the ramp. We had been so focused with our concern about getting to the plane that we had not noticed that there was no plane at the end of the boarding ramp! We went to the end of it, went down the stairs, and boarded a bus which took us to a row of jumbo airplanes lined up on the tarmac a few hundred feet away. We had to climb the boarding stairs and we were finally on our plane. What a relief! Then we got to our seats, a window seat and an aisle seat on this large, eight-seat-across plane, and found someone sitting in our seat. We ousted her with grace and humor, and she left with equal grace and humor, moving across the aisle to her seat. I am pretty sure that at least two busloads of passengers arrived after ours did. As a result of the delays, our plane took off 45 minutes late. Roger had the window seat for the first half of the trip, and he pointed out tiny specks in the sea which he thinks are icebergs. They littered the ocean below looking like white confetti, but they must be as big as houses or buildings!


Newfoundland or thereabouts from 30,000 feet up!

Welcome to Cincinnati where, as with the rest of the U.S., the public is not permitted to get away from constant TV news coverage. The same news, over and over and over, sometimes from different angles, mostly just repeats of previously repeated news. You cannot escape - YOU WILL LISTEN!!! Ugh! Hostage situations, shooting at a high school, shooting at a mall, a blow-torch killing - death, death, death and violence. It is great to be back in the U.S.!
At last we were able to board our flight to Dallas, and the flight was uneventful until landing. The plane touched down and decelerated fairly smoothly up to a point, at which the pilot really jammed on the brakes, then executed a rather abrupt turn to the left. The deceleration was so abrupt that we were all thrust forward somewhat against our seat belts. Apparently the pilot didn’t realize the turn was coming up as soon as it did, and he really had to step on the brake to make his turn toward the terminal.

Finally, finally, we got to see our grandson! SUCH A CUTIE!! Ronnie and Shelli were waiting at the luggage carousel, with Shelli holding the baby. She turned him over to me and I didn’t want to let him go. I cried. What a beautiful, beautiful baby, what a fantastic moment.

Unfortunately there was a wreck in the rush-hour traffic on the highway, and it us more than an hour to get to Shelli and Ronnie’s house. We greeted Eric and settled in for an evening of holding the baby and visiting with Shelli, Ronnie and Eric. Such a wonderful welcome back to the States!

Thanks, Charlotte!

Tuesday January 4, 2011 Day 188

Roger has been tracking the Barcelona World Race on the computer. The ships left Friday at noon. There is real-time mapping of the boats, probably by GPS, and the track each boat has taken so far is fascinating. The winds were apparently quite calm at the start of the race. Some hugged the coast of Spain looking for winds, others tried their luck along the coast of Africa. There are four boats out into the Atlantic at this writing, and the rest are struggling to get past Gibralter. The crew who manned the winning boat last time (Estrella Damm) is leading. Interestingly enough, the Estrella Damm has four different hands this year - not sure why the previous crew jumped ship.

Roger left early to go to the ATM and the post office, taking both package slips with him. This time he got lucky, and brought home the package. He made me guess, and it wasn’t until he asked me who I knew who would not have to pay international shipping rates from the States that I hit upon Charlotte, who up until a few days ago has been living in Vienna. Thanks for the Christmas presents, Charlotte!

We accessed our boarding passes and saved them to a flash drive. Then I took the flash drive down to our local cybercafe for printing. As we checked the tickets, we discovered that there is no boarding pass for me in Cincinnati. Roger’s pass is a 3-in-one pass, getting him onto all three of tomorrow’s flights. Mine has Montpellier and Paris but not Cincinnati. I am not sure how that happened, but that is all that came up on the computer.

We were able to Skypd with Shelli, Ronnie, Brennan and Bruno. The new mother and father took their infant to the pediatrician for his first check-up and the baby got an A+. After a bit of a weight-loss issue, Brennan is back on track, having gained six ounces since Sunday. I can hardly wait to hold him tomorrow evening.

Reshuffling the pack

Monday January 3, 2011 Day 187

Roger went out to the grocery store and the post office this morning, taking the package slip with him. When he returned, he had no package. He said the clerk at the post office searched and searched and searched again, and finally told him to come back tomorrow. On the way up to the apartment, he checked the mail, and another package slip was in our box! But the buzzer hadn’t rung - the postman had just left it without checking with us. Tomorrow is our last day to pick it up, as we leave on Wednesday for two weeks. I don’t know about France, the in the U.S., the post office has a policy that they will return packages/envelopes if they are unclaimed for two weeks.

In the evening we Skyped with Shelli, Ronnie, Brennan and Bruno. The baby is beautiful, and he and Shelli are at home now, doing fine. Poor Bruno! He is still trying to determine his place in the pack and figure out how he could have been so badly demoted! He used to be Top Dog, and now he is the underdog.

Knee injury?

Sunday January 2, 2011 Day 186

Several years ago - six to eight, probably - I tried moving a cast-iron tub in our back yard and injured my knee. My doctor said it was probably a torn meniscus. He took the conservative approach of basically doing nothing and waiting, and the pain went away after a week or so. Then on the cruise, I began to realize that I had a problem with my knee - not a large one - but there was just this feeling that if I twisted my knee in the wrong way, I was going to feel a lot of pain. Fortunately, I didn’t twist my knee, so I had no pain, just that funny feeling in the knee. The feeling continued intermittently throughout the cruise. In Barcelona I began to notice some pain, but not too much. And I simply had to stop and rest the knee for a couple of minutes, then I could continue walking without a problem. Every day since then, it has gotten a bit worse, and this morning when we went out for our walk, I only lasted about five minutes. It would appear that I am going to have to have surgery on the knee while we are in the States for a couple of weeks. This is NOT how I had planned to spend my time! I have a grandbaby to hold! Sigh!

We hung around the apartment most of the day. We were hoping for a Skype call from our new grandson, but this did not materialize. We did “watch” the Saints lose to Tampa Bay. Sigh.

Happy New Year

Saturday January 1, 2011 Day 185

Happy New Year to everyone. I hope 2011 is better to you than 2010 was, however 2010 treated you.

It continues to be cool and cloudy. We went for a walk this morning and found a few bakery shops open, but most everything else is shuttered - even the restaurants. There were not even any buses running. This concerned us because we were due to take the bus to chez Anne. But shortly after noon, I heard what I thought was a bus. I poked my head out and saw a Number 15 bus go by - exactly the number we would need. Evidently the buses didn’t run on Christmas morning or New Year’s morning, but started up at noon.

Roger went out to see if there were any chess players (there weren’t), while I spent the afternoon preparing the pork loin, barbeque sauce, and squash soup. I realized that we hadn’t planned very well - we had nothing to go with the meat except for some pasta - not even any vegetables. We only had a few frozen peas - pretty tasty, but there weren’t enough for three. I decided that we would settle for some really, REALLY good pasta shells that we happened to have on hand. They are quiet delicious, but they are not usually what we serve with slow-roasted pork loin; however, they would have to do. Roger came home, we spent some time on the computers, then left at 6:00 to go to Anne’s.

We had a lovely time at Anne’s. She served champagne and smoked salmon and fois gras and some really good guacamole, then we moved to the table where it was our turn to dish out the soup. Then we served the pork loin with the homemade barbeque sauce, which was excellent this time. Bingo! Everything was delicious, and we ended the evening with a buche noel, or yule log, then Anne drove us home in her little yellow car. It was a delightful start to 2011.

Puzzling package notice

Friday December 31, 2010 Day 184

Apartment-cleaning day, then off to the grocery store. We have a 2-day holiday coming and need to set in a few stores so that we don’t starve. Of course, we could just live off the fat of our cruise, but that’s too emotionally painful! Besides, we promised Anne we would bring something to eat to her place. And we don’t want to plan on shopping on Monday. We did that last Monday and the lines were awful! They were almost as bad today, and it was particularly crowded around the champagne aisles! We bought a small pork loin - not even two kilos - and six jars of Speculoos, so we can spread the joy in the States.

While we were cleaning the apartment, someone rang our buzzer in the street. I answered, but there was no response, only street noises. Later, when we went down to the lobby and checked the mail, there was a package slip there. Apparently it was the postman who rang our bell. Unfortunately we will have to remain in suspense until Monday about the package, as the post is closed tomorrow and Sunday. We puzzled as to who would be sending us a package - our families know we will be in the States in a few days and there is no point in spending money to send us an international package. Jimmy did email before Christmas asking us our address, which we supplied, but I told him at the time not to mail us any Christmas gifts, but just to get them to Dallas. I hadn’t ordered anything to be delivered here in France, and were unable to hit on who might have sent us a package.

We have a baby!

Thursday December 30, 2010 Day 183

Alicia called us just after midnight to say that Shelli and Ronnie had a little boy, eight pounds, ten ounces, and that mother and baby are doing fine. Ronnie sent a message via her to say that the baby has lots of fat rolls!

This morning at 7:00, we got a call again from Alicia telling us that Shelli said to go onto Skype, so we got up and eagerly turned on the computer. After a moment, we were blessed with a glimpse of our new grandson, his mother and his father. He is beautiful! He is Brennan Patrick Richard, and he was kind enough to open his eyes for us a couple of times so we could see them briefly. What a wonderful day!


Okay, this photo is kind of cheating - I think he is a week old here. Isn't he beautiful?!!



Christmas Eve all over again

Wednesday December 29, 2010 Day 182

Today is like Christmas Eve for a kid. I remember the anticipation I felt as a child, knowing that Santa was going to come during the night and I would wake up on Christmas day to unknown, but anticipated, delights. Tonight about the time I go to bed, my daughter will have a Caesarean section and when I wake up in the morning, or indeed, in the middle of the night even, I will have one of the greatest gifts ever - a grandchild! Good luck, Shelli

I made the mistake of fixing iced tea for supper last night, and the icy liquid in my chest coupled with my cold brought on a cough which reared its ugly head when I went to bed. I got up and heated my warmie in the microwave, returned to bed and put it on my chest and slept very soundly with no cough all night. My loving husband put my warmie in the microwave when he got up this morning to reheat it, then brought it to me nice and hot. He is so great!

We ventured out this afternoon to go to the grocery store and the English Corner Shop. The owner of the latter is an AWG member and a friend so we visited with her for a while before returning home. Roger usually plays chess in the afternoons, but he decided today’s temperature of 7 degrees Celsius is below his tolerance level. He plays with several other guys - whoever shows up - and play is on tables out in the open under the trees at the Esplanade Charles de Gaulle. It can get pretty uncomfortable to play chess for very long, sitting still on cold chairs in the waning afternoon light.

Anne called to invite us to her place on Saturday evening to celebrate the new year, stating that she would provide the champagne and hors d’oeuvres if we would bring a main dish. We agreed, and Roger and I began to discuss what we would bring. We decided to do a pork loin again - perhaps the third time will be charm. The first two times here in France I seem to have overcooked a pork loin.

Tonight is even fuller of anticipation. Shelli was a scheduled for her C-section at 4:00 p.m., which is 11:00 p.m. our time. At midnight we still had not heard anything.

Warming up

Tuesday December 28, 2010 Day 181

The apartment was finally warm today when we got up after some 36 hours of non-stop radiator output.

We went to Les Arceaux market around 11:00, and the first thing we did there was run into Anne. This was something of a surprise, because she told me a few weeks ago that she hasn’t been to Les Arceaux market for a long time. I guess she decided that this was a good time to check it out. We chatted for several minutes, exchanging the usual post-Christmas pleasantries, and she invited us to join her in doing something for New Year’s Eve, putting our non-plans with her non-plan and suggesting that we could get together for dinner or something - she said she would call us later.

The market was rather short on food vendors today but had a plethora of stalls we had not seen before, including one selling mattresses. There were no less than three vendors selling pots and pans - is this a French tradition, to buy pots and pans for the new year? - one selling tabletop fountains and herbal remedies and aromatherapy stuff, and one offering angora sweaters. Roger remarked that there were no seafood vendors - no loss for him!

When we were here more than a year ago checking out the city as a possible place to live, I fell in love with the trompers l'oeils around the city. This translates as “fool the eye,” and they are murals painted on the sides of mostly-blank building walls which give the impression that there is more to the building. Check these out:

This one is down the street from our apartment. About the only thing that is real is the arch and some of the trees.
The building is totally flat, although the painting is so good that it is hard to believe.

There are only a few real windows in this building. Can you spot them?

Our third Christmas card - this one the annual Christmas newsletter from Jimmy and Susan. They went to Argentina for Christmas this year. They travel every year at Christmas, and this is the first year they did not take their kids. Jami got married and she and Sean probably do not have adequate time off from work, and Brant chose to stay home as well. Thanks for the updates!

Home again

Monday December 27, 2010 Day 180

The heater was on all night and the apartment was still cool this morning; not cold, but cooler than we generally like it. I sat by the radiator most of the day and nursed my cold.

Before noon we walked to the grocery store. Our kitchen is almost empty of food, although before we left, we made sure we had ultra-pasteurized milk and some yogurt on hand so we could have breakfast this morning.

I did manage to get three loads of laundry done, and Roger volunteered to take them to the dryer, since we needed some fresh jeans or pants, and everything we owned was dirty from the trip. Pants take at least 24 hours to dry in the apartment, and that is when it is at its normal 70 degrees or so. Since it was cooler, we knew they would take much longer.

My cold already seems better - this one did not hit me nearly as hard as the one I got shortly before our cruise. I don’t know whether I have lowered resistance or what the deal is, but I have had three colds since arriving in Europe almost six months ago. Maybe it is just exposure to new viruses, ones that don’t make the rounds in the U.S. I do not usually get even one cold per year, so having yet a third one in such a short time is a real bummer.

We got a Christmas card today from Alicia and Peter. Thanks! Two now, when I wasn’t sure we would get any!

More Barcelona

Sunday December 26, 2010 Day 179

This morning we took the subway to Sagrada Familia, a large church near central Barcelona which has been under construction for more than 100 years. It is slated to be complete in 2027, the 100th anniversary of the death of Antoni Gaudi, who conceived of the church and took over building it in 1883. He was still working on it at the time of his death, at which time it was less than one-quarter complete. The church is a bizarre combination of art nouveau, gothic, and curvilinear forms. It is said that at night, the structure looks as if it is made of bones. The famous British author George Orwell called la Sagrada Familia, “the ugliest building on earth!” On the subject of the extremely long construction period, Gaudí is said to have remarked, "My client is not in a hurry.” We walked all the way around it twice, but did not go in because of time pressure - unlike Gaudi's client, we were in something of a hurry.

This photo (blurry though it is) is for our Louisiana friends -
the Pelican and her babies from the flag made it to a nook on the Sagrada Familia!

We took a different subway back to our hotel to collect our luggage so that we could see a little bit different part of the city from that which we had seen so far. We turned a corner and came upon a museum, not yet opened apparently, which will house some very old boats. Along the side of the approach to the museum lay a red and black (Fight Raiders, fight!) scarf, neatly folded in half. No one was around, so we claimed it for Roger.


We left Barcelona having only scratched the surface of its offerings. Hopefully we will be back - Spain is not terribly far from where we live. We packed our bags and headed for the train station and ultimately home. Boarding procedures for the train were interesting. First, I was plodding along, head down, toward the gate when Roger and someone else shouted at me - I had walked right past a security check! I backed up, apologized and put the suitcase, backpack and my purse into the machine. I had a bag with lunch in it, and he did not require that I put it in. When I walked around to the other side to collect my belongings, there was no scanner to walk through! I could have had explosives strapped to my chest and they would not have been detected! That seems to make no sense. Not only that, when we came to Spain from France, there was no luggage check there, either. We moved on a few meters to a ticket checkpoint, and we were handed a 2011 calendar from Renfe, the train company, called “Things We All Say when We Ride the Train,” including “In which pocket did I place the tickets?” “Look at the sky!” “This trip must be repeated,” and “Tiny snow is falling!” for December.

On the train ride from Barcelona to Figueres-Vilafant, we had another view of the snow-capped Pyrenees - the same mountains we saw on Christmas Eve from Montserrat - but from a different angle. We had a train change near the French border. Our train was ten minutes in arriving, but our connecting TGV train was a good twenty-five minutes late. It was cool and windy on the platform. The train finally came and we had another two hours to reach Montpellier. It was quite cool when we detrained, probably just a few degrees above freezing, and we scurried home as quickly as possible. The apartment was cold when we got in - we had left the heater in vacation mode. We turned on the heater, but I don’t think the apartment warmed up even two degrees by bedtime. We were grateful for the duvet, which is not always the case. We checked our mail on the way upstairs, and got our first (and only!) Christmas card. Thanks, Pam and Ronald and Alex! Roger ran out for a pizza for supper, but the shop on our corner was closed, so he went on up St. Guliem for a baguette and a rotisserie chicken. I fixed peas and that was our supper. Ah, it’s great to be home!

Merry Christmas!

Saturday December 25, 2010 Day 178

Merry Christmas! Another cold? Bah, humbug!! We were fortunate to have really good health on our trip, but this is a bummer now!

We got up late, bought some croissants and coffee in a Muslim bakery which likely doesn’t celebrate Christmas, then walked along the marina area where we saw several street sculptures.

Giant lobster sculpture outside a restaurant

Street sculpture - possibly by Gaudi

Sailing sculpture

We saw a number of luxury yachts (is there any other kind?). We kept seeing signs announcing Barcelona World Race, and as we approached a certain area of the marina, we were able to go down onto the pier, where we saw eleven of fourteen boats which are set to go on a round-the-world race starting New Year’s Eve. They are crewed by teams of only two people, among whom are three women. This year, for the first time, there will be an all-woman crew. Their boat is GAES Centros Auditivos (Gaes Hearing Center). They are Dee Caffari and Anna Corbella, a Spanish-British duo. I think I will pull for them. The race is non-stop. In the first year of competition (2007-2008), it took 92 days to complete. This is only the second edition of the race.

Me outside the women's yacht

The only two-woman yacht in the race

We had a seafood lunch - the restaurant had no special Christmas menu so we just enjoyed ourselves with seafood. Afterward we walked up La Rambla. It was rather cold, but fortunately not windy, so walking was tolerable. We paused near the end of La Rambla to admire some statues and fountain before heading back down, and I made a sudden decision to break with tradition, since this holiday is very untraditional for us anyway. I saw a woman holding a Starbucks cup, and I searched the recess of my mind for some Spanish vocabulary and came up with “Pardon, donde esta Starbucks?” As I first began to speak to her, she ignored me, probably thinking I was a beggar. But she absorbed my question, pointed across an intersection and said it was across from Burger King, which we could see. I thanked her and we headed for the coffee shop - the first American restaurant chain we have entered since arriving in Europe. I had a macchiato and Roger a hot chocolate. The hot drinks in the warm restaurant were a delight. Even though it was barely 4:00, the sun was no longer shining on the streets and the air was decidedly cooler than when we started out. There were lots of street performers on La Rambla. Several of them were variations on the "living statue" theme.



Street-side Yoda?



Three laughing heads

Golden roofs in the late afternoon sunshine



A headless guy who, a few seconds later, lifted his hand to shake hands with the girl

On our way back to the hotel, we passed the market which we saw yesterday evening. We walked around looking at the merchandise, and Roger bought a ring to replace his Texas Tech class ring which disappeared a few years ago. I bought a white knit hat, and we wished each other Merry Christmas.

In the evening we Skyped the Wedels and Stantons for a bit and I got to see all my siblings except for my brother, who is in Argentina. I saw my great nephew James for the first time. He was born just after we came to France. We tried to Skype Alicia as well, but we couldn’t seem to get together. It was after 9:00 by this time and we were hungry, so we walked to La Rambla and ate some highly mediocre pasta from a take-away place. Upon our return to the hotel, we were finally able to talk to Alicia and Peter and wish them a Merry Christmas.

Barcelona fountain show

HappyHolidaysBonesFestesFelicesFiestasToAllMyFlickrFriends.-
Originally uploaded by ancama_99(toni)

Our camera does not take good night photos (or perhaps it is the operators who do not take good night photos!) so I borrowed this photo of the fountain show from Fllickr.

Barcelona and Montserrat

Friday December 24, 2010 Day 177

We awoke early to the engine noises of the docking process. We went to breakfast on the top deck, then came back and packed. Departure was quick and easy. In the terminal we waited about 15 minutes for a port bus to come and collect passengers headed into Barcelona. We had only a little trouble finding our hotel - the street had a different name along La Rambla from its name in front of our hotel. We had only a short detour before discovering our mistake.
We arrived about 9:00, and were surprised to be able to check into the hotel this early. Roger suggested that there are probably few guests at the hotel for Christmas Eve. On the counter at the check-in desk were two Santas - one pre-cruise, one post-cruise.

Santa - pre-cruise and post-cruise

We ditched our luggage and left for the subway, where we took the metro to a train station, then boarded a train headed northwest out of the city. An hour later we arrived at Montserrat, a Benedictine abbey high in the Catalonian mountains overlooking the plains of Spain and giving us a vista of the snow-covered Pyrenees. The main attraction is not the monastery itself but the miles of wide, shallow walking paths which surround the monastery and lead to 15 hermitages, in the areas. We accessed the monastery by cable car from the train stop, and the 5-minute ride to the top was spectacular, with the mountains on our side, the valley floor spread out below us, and the Pyrenees beyond. Did I say it was spectacular?

We explored a bit, then had a mediocre lunch - pretty much what you expect on a mountaintop with limited access. We bought some black honey, as we were intrigued by the idea. We entered the basilica just in time to hear the Montserrat Boy’s Choir singing Ave Maria and other pieces. A nice cap to the visit.

We returned to Barcelona and our room, rested for a bit, then went out in search of the famous fountains at La Plaça Carles Buïgas , the Font Mágica de Montjuïc. They were a few subway stops away from our hotel. The fountains have thirteen different choreographies - three film music spectaculars, six classical music, one zarzuela, a twentieth and twenty-first century remix, an 80s-90s remix and Barcelona, by Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballé. We only saw two, but they were great. They rival the Bellagio in Las Vegas for a combination of fountain work, music and lights. We stayed about an hour enjoying the shows, which are open-air and free to the public. Then we returned to the area of our hotel and had dinner of paella and pizza. Roger had a glass of wine while I had a glass of Spanish sangria.

There was a small market set up on La Rambla - it was being assembled as we walked along the area on our way to catch the train to Montserrat. The sign says it will be open from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. daily through January 5. Interesting that it opens on Christmas Eve! We walked past the 40 or so booths and saw much the same thing as we saw at the Montpellier Christmas market - jewelry, scarves, soaps, clothing, handcrafted items. There were even some leather items very similar to my new computer case.
 
Our world has just about stopped swaying, and we hit the sack on dry land for the first time in 12 days.

Organ, Montserrat Basilica

Organ, Montserrat Basilica
Originally uploaded by simonlong

Our photo of the organ did not come out well, so I borrowed one from Flickr. Note the horizontal pipes!

Final sea day

Thursday December 23, 2010 Day 176

This is our final day at sea, and Barcelona can’t come too soon! It has been a really enjoyable cruise overall, but at this point we can hardly wait to get off this ship. I think we are both suffering from cruise fatigue - we are tired of the constant movement, cramped stateroom and the same food, yet again. When we traveled on a Carnival cruise several years ago, I overheard a remark that the food on Norwegian Cruise Lines was much better than that of Carnival. I don’t think that statement is true today. Norwegian has gone to a dining system they call Freestyle dining, whereby there are no assigned seats, no assigned dining times or dining rooms, and cruisers are free to eat wherever and whenever they wish. There is a self-serve dining room at the top of the ship which is open most of the day. There is a full-service dining room available for breakfast and lunch, and a second one available in the evening. They are on a first-come, first-served basis - if a party arrives at a busy time, they may be given a beeper and a waiting time of 15-20 minutes; otherwise, it is a matter of walking in and being seated almost immediately. The food at all these venues has been good, or perhaps slightly better than good. No, just good. There are other self-serve dining venues such as an outdoor grill and a small café. In addition to these, there are eight premium dining venues, at which we could dine for an additional $10-25 each. I am sure the cruise line saves their best cooking for these venues. Frugal muggles that we are, we did not indulge.

We played bridge again in the afternoon with Nora and Dimmy - I partnered Nora this time - guys against gals. We made her keep score, telling her that all good bridge players need to know how to keep score. It was much the same as the last time - they sniped and bickered at each other, she was a lousy player and he a quite good one. The guys won.

In the evening was the final entertainment - a Christmas program given by the ship’s professional singers and dancers backed up by the Jade orchestra. This was followed by a talent show from among the Jade staff, some of them hotel or restaurant workers, with one presentation by the executive chef, who had better not quit his “day” job! Some were funny, some poignant, and all heartfelt. The program closed with all of the top Jade employees and as much of the lesser crew as could get on stage singing a final farewell and wishing us all a Merry Christmas.

Our home away from home for twelve days



Our cruise director, Gary, in his angel costume

Cruise impressions:

Food not as good as I expected - may have been in the premium restaurants, but we didn’t try them.
American coffee!
Iced tea.
Hand sanitizer - in active use at every entry to every restaurant; that is, young women were waiting with bottles of hand sanitizer to squirt a stream into everyone’s hand as they entered the restaurant. This also applied to our entry onto the ship after every outing. There were passive dispensers at the entrances to the casino, the fitness center, the spa and probably other places as well - I don’t specifically recall. Clearly NCL was doing what it could to reduce the spread of germs.

Malta

Wednesday December 22, 2010 Day 175

After breakfast this morning we walked the deck and watched the ship sail into the port of Malta. It has a beautifully-protected harbor into which we sailed a bit earlier than we were scheduled. As we watched, a pilot boat brought a pilot out to the ship. It did not even stop, but came alongside the ship’s ladder and the pilot reached out, grabbed the ladder and clambered aboard, after which the pilot boat sped away. After we pulled alongside the dock, various people gathered below in preparation for the ship’s arrival. One of them was Santa and his donkey. You do know the story of Santa and his donkey, right? Right!

As we watched the dock activity, we were aware of a dog in an area near a couple of the workmen. The dog did not interfere, and in fact, did no approach the workers. As we looked closer, we realized that his leash was tethered to a trot line which allowed him run up and down an area of the dock but it kept him out from under everybody’s feet.

Malta is a lovely island country. It is very small, just 121 square miles. Much of that is on the main island of Malta. There are two other inhabited islands: Gozo, and Camino, with only four residents! The country has a population of about 410,000. Our excursion was a bus tour which took us to several stops including the harbor area, the highest point on the island, and a local market.

Maltese ships are decorated with eyes for good luck

Roger, with Malta in the background

Traditional yellow buses of Malta

Unfortunately, I was suffering too much cruise fatigue to enjoy Malta properly. We were happy to return to the ship before 5:00. We went upstairs for a cup of tea, cookies and a scone with marmalade. Just before 6:00, we went back to the exterior deck and watch Malta float away from us. We were privileged to watch the pilot boat come alongside the ship to take the pilot off the ship. Interesting process - I hope he never loses his footing!

Goodbye to Malta

I checked messages briefly and found one from Shelli stating that she will have a C-section in a week. I truly regret that I will not be there with her, and will not see the child until s/he is a week old. At the same time, I am so excited about having a grandchild.

We saw the daughter of the blind woman who was missing her luggage - she still does not have it all. I think it trickled aboard, some at every port, although I am betting none made it aboard at Crete since that was a diversion port.

It has been a cruise of sorrow and joy. On the 16th, we learned that my aunt June died - the last of my father‘s siblings. My father is now the sole remaining survivor among his siblings. Then on the 19th, we learned that Roger’s aunt Gail died. She was the last remaining survivor of her parents’ children, Roger‘s mother having died in May. The joy takes the form of our aforementioned soon-to-be-born grandchild.

Ship extravaganza - combination magic show and ballet and modern dance and gymnastics and music - quite nice. Afterward, there was a chocolate fanasy in the cafeteria upstairs. There were ice sculptures and chocolate sculptures and chocolate fountain and oodles of chocolate to eat. A feast for the eyes and the stomach, one which the latter did not need!

Swan ice sculpture

Chocolate wine and grapes

Ice dragon

Chocolate Sphinx

Chocolate castle

Chocolate galore!

Chocolate guitars

Still anoother sea day

Tuesday December 21, 2010 Day 174

Sea day - we slept until 8:00, then spent an hour or so walking on the deck to try to work off some of the overeating in which we have been indulging. We went to a Q&A session with the cruise director and the ship’s captain, then Roger went to a seminar in the exercise room on the secrets of a flatter stomach. The presenters were apparently pushing some sort of detox regimen. I sat with my computer in one of the lounges and relaxed.

This afternoon we played bridge with an Indonesian couple, Dimmy and Nora. They asked if we would be willing to partner them, as they cannot get along as partners. Before the afternoon was over, we could see why. She was the poorest of the four bridge players at the table, but she was the most imperious and demanding of the four. She did not know how to keep score, but kept checking that I put down the bids (for her convenience), and every score, sometimes even before I had collected my cards and handed them to the dealer. Early in the game, she asked if Roger bids four-card majors, then objected loudly when my partner asked me if I bid a particular convention (Staymen), which is the equivalent procedural question between two bridge players who have not played together before. As we wrapped up the afternoon after more than two hours of bridge, they asked us if we would be willing to play again at 2:00 on the next sea day, two days from now. We agreed, and later in our stateroom, Roger and I agreed that we would insist on Nora keeping score. After all, every good bridge player should be able to keep score.
The evening’s entertainment was a Spanish male foursome called Fourever who sang a 45-minute concert of mostly Spanish songs, but with a few in English. The baritone was particularly good. I tried to find them on Google for more information but had no luck.

Our cabin steward often left us a towel
folded in the shape of an animal.